"Where to next?"
His mom yawned lazily.
"To 'there' first?" Zhang Shutong didn't rush to answer. Instead, he asked the person behind him.
"To 'there' first." Lu Qinglian nodded her chin.
The "there" the two of them were talking about was the restricted area. According to their discussion on the way down the mountain, they were going to investigate the restricted area again. Although he couldn't see anything, Lu Qinglian might be able to find something unusual.
"Your relationship seems to have improved again." His mom tilted her head in a strange way.
No, it hasn't.
Zhang Shutong thought to himself.
Is this the kind of relationship that comes from being kicked?
It just so happened that her ankle was sprained too.
Zhang Shutong was willing to call it a relationship forged by a kick.
He ignored his mom's teasing and described the location of the restricted area in detail.
"What are you doing there?"
"...Playing."
"You're really treating your mom like a driver. What about Little Lu?"
"I'm the one who wants to go and have a look. I'm sorry to trouble you."
Lu Qinglian's calm voice came from behind.
Zhang Shutong glanced at her. Her expression was a half-smile, that same playful smile. Of course, according to her, it was a smile of interest. He knew what she meant; she was mocking him for telling another lie.
Of course, she was also covering up for him.
His mom sighed.
Zhang Shutong also sighed inwardly.
He was sure that if it were just him in the car right now, his mom would have impatiently thrown him on the side of the road.
The car drove to the restricted area. This was the difference between women and men. Old Song had asked if he should follow them. His mom, on the other hand, said, "You two go down yourselves. Don't call me." After saying that, she reclined her seat, turned up the air conditioning, and slowly lay down.
"Don't stay too long."
"Okay..."
Zhang Shutong pushed the car door open and first subconsciously looked around. There was no sign of people nearby. He could still see the tire marks left last night.
A faint mist covered the water. Everything was a vast white. The sky was high and far away, and the reeds swayed gently in the wind.
This time, his pace was slower because Lu Qinglian's ankle was injured.
Zhang Shutong proactively walked in front, pushing aside the reeds and reminding her, "Be careful of your feet. There's a fishing line."
"Why would there be a fishing line?"
"Uh... probably tied by some idiot who was fishing."
Zhang Shutong replied perfunctorily and pointed to the shore:
"She was right there, squatting by the lake. How should I describe her posture? It was like her hands were also on the ground. Have you ever seen Kung Fu Hustle?"
He had wanted to use the "toad style" as an example, but Lu Qinglian just shook her head:
"I can probably understand. Go on."
"And then when my flashlight shone on her face, she turned her head. Oh, her hair was down at the time, not like yours now."
The girl was now wearing a high ponytail.
"She only ran when she saw you approaching?"
"Yes."
"But we made a lot of noise on the way." Lu Qinglian frowned.
"I also felt that something was wrong. At the time, I thought it was you. I thought you recognized me and were doing something you didn't want me to see, so you suddenly ran away..."
"How fast?"
"It felt like it happened in the blink of an eye."
"You should be glad she ran. Judging by that speed," Lu Qinglian thought for a moment, "if she had made a move on you, you wouldn't have been able to escape."
"I guess so." Zhang Shutong also felt a lingering fear. "Can you tell anything from this?"
"I can't." Lu Qinglian thought. "But I can think of two possibilities for now."
"First, she clearly heard the sound but waited until she saw your face before she ran away. This is very abnormal. Your guess is that she must have a reason not to be discovered by 'you,' but the premise of that is that she knew 'you' from before."
"She knows me?" Zhang Shutong frowned. "Just to be sure, the 'Lu Qinglian' I've known since the first year of middle school is the one in front of me, right?"
"Correct."
"Then what's the second possibility?"
"It's very simple. She has a hearing problem but reacts to a light source." Lu Qinglian's thinking was very clear. "You came by car. I just paid attention to the sound of your car's engine. It was very loud, but she didn't notice it, but when you shone your flashlight, she immediately turned her head."
"In that case, this is very likely." Zhang Shutong murmured. He looked at Lu Qinglian for a while and still couldn't help but ask, "Are you sure that person really wasn't you?"
"I already said. I was never here last night." Lu Qinglian said calmly. "If you're still suspicious, then our partnership can end here."
"I mean, is it possible that you don't even remember, like sleepwalking or something?"
"No, I was completely awake last night."
It seemed that they really were not the same person. They were two identical people.
He then thought that last Saturday, on his way home, he had run into Lu Qinglian. They had exchanged a few words. That Lu Qinglian should have been the real one. At that time, she went south, in the direction of the villa.
So, she still went to the villa.
Zhang Shutong also remembered their previous conversation.
Those frozen snakes were a way of "transmitting messages."
In other words, on Saturday night, she might have discovered the anomaly at the villa through the snakes, so she rushed over.
But in the end, she still couldn't stop Gu Qiumian from being harmed?
But this time, with the heavy snow, even those snakes were useless.
The two of them walked around the shore again, trying to find her footprints, but she had run directly into the reeds, so there was no way to find anything.
"Let's go back." Zhang Shutong said with a headache. "There's no point in staying here anymore."
"Mmm, where to next?"
"How about we go and take a look at the villa?"
"Okay."
Zhang Shutong walked in front again. He found that Lu Qinglian's ankle was indeed very serious. She had to occasionally hold on to the reeds on both sides as if they were crutches:
"How's your ankle?"
"It's fine."
Zhang Shutong didn't quite understand what "fine" meant.
Thinking about it from her perspective, if he had said "fine," it meant it was quite painful. If it was really "fine," he would have said, "I'm okay."
"By the way, are you cold in those clothes?"
Zhang Shutong noticed that her face, which had just regained some color, had turned white again.
Before, Zhang Shutong thought she wasn't afraid of the cold. Now he realized that she was just cold-resistant, or perhaps she was emotionally obtuse?
She seemed to be the type of person who would ignore her own feelings once she got serious about something.
"A little, but I can endure it."
"I thought you weren't cold at all."
"Why do you keep saying useless things?" Lu Qinglian sighed.
Zhang Shutong was speechless.
When they returned to the car, his mom was applying lipstick in front of the makeup mirror:
"Where to next, you two kids?"
Zhang Shutong was used to this. His mom also had a vain personality. He just asked:
"Is the bus still running today?" Zhang Shutong asked.
"I think so."
"Then you can drop us off at the bus stop."
There was only one bus route on the island, which went near the villa. Although it didn't go to the winding mountain road, it didn't matter since cars couldn't get up there anyway.
"So you finally feel sorry for your mom?" She seemed to be quite happy all of a sudden. He didn't know what had happened.
So she didn't ask them what they were going to do. She just said okay and started the car.
When there were outsiders, his mom never asked him why he was doing something, giving him enough face.
But Zhang Shutong remembered that Lu Qinglian's ankle was still injured. It would be inhumane to let her just go all the way without a break. Although if he asked if she could hold on, she would most likely reply with "It's fine."
So Zhang Shutong changed his mind again:
"Never mind. Let's just go home first."
He glanced at Lu Qinglian and found that she didn't have any reaction. She was just turning her face to look out the window.
"Why did you change your mind again? Tell me where to go quickly. I'm in a hurry."
"Home."
"Are you sure you don't need me to drop you off anywhere else?"
"I'm sure."
"How about we make a bet? What will happen if you call me again today?" His mom said playfully. The woman had a beautiful pair of phoenix eyes. When she squinted, the corners of her eyes would slightly curl up, and that's when you know something bad is about to happen.
"No." Zhang Shutong didn't take the bait.
"By the way, what about your friends? Didn't you say you were going to the mountain to play with them?"
"Oh, them. They went back in their family's car first."
Zhang Shutong answered half-truthfully.
Playing with his friends was a lie.
But they did come together in a car today. Zhang Shutong didn't ask in detail, but it should have been Ruoping's dad who drove them.
"Then it's a gentleman's agreement. Don't call me. I'm really going off the island later, you know?"
"What are you doing off the island?" Zhang Shutong was stunned. He thought his mom was still on the island in the last timeline.
"To find your dad, of course. For a candlelit dinner. He said he's already booked the restaurant." His parents had a very good relationship, and his mom admitted it openly. "He called me not long after you left and said he saw it was snowing on the island. Since it's Friday, he asked if he should come and take you to the city to play. I said you had an appointment with another classmate, so we would have some alone time."
"Uh..."
Zhang Shutong was still trying to process this information.
No wonder she was putting on lipstick.
No wonder she was smiling.
It turned out that his mom and dad were going on a date.
And they weren't planning on taking him.
Although his parents were usually very busy, their work was a little different. His mom worked on the island, and his dad would sometimes go out for lectures and meetings. So even though it was snowing today and he didn't have to go to work, only his mom had returned.
He vaguely remembered that his father had been in the city for the past few days.
"I'm jealous." Zhang Shutong was indeed jealous.
His parents could be considered a model couple in his heart. They had known each other since college. His mom had a wild personality when she was young, like a mischievous witch who loved chaos. She had countless admirers, but she was completely devoted to his dad.
His dad also doted on his mom. After all these years, the woman was still as carefree as she was when she was young, and she hadn't grown many wrinkles.
And now, a candlelit dinner.
Zhang Shutong thought about how he still had to run around later and had no idea what he would eat for dinner, while the two of them would be having dinner in a private room at a certain restaurant. His mood became a little complicated.
But there was nothing he could do. Back in the day, he had grown up in an environment where they would show their affection from time to time. He remembered that when he first started high school, they both transferred back to work in the city. They finally had some free time and didn't rush back to work. They just drove around the country and played for a while.
At that time, Zhang Shutong had just gotten his regression ability and was having a blast as a lone wolf.
Affected by the two of them, he had a high standard for a significant other. When he finally met a senior he liked in high school, they were not meant to be, and he remained single for many years.
Zhang Shutong recalled the past and couldn't help but feel a little sentimental.
His mom saw that he hadn't said anything for a long time and pinched his face. "Are you lonely? Do you want to come too?"
Zhang Shutong reluctantly shook her hand away. "No, I have something to do later."
"I knew it." His mom smiled again. "Have fun with Little Lu."
The car soon returned to the dorm building.
The two of them got out of the car.
Zhang Shutong said goodbye to his mom.
Lu Qinglian basically didn't say anything on the way. She just occasionally nodded or shook her head when his mom asked her something. She was a quiet and polite girl. There were no parents who wouldn't like this kind of girl.
But Zhang Shutong knew she was faking it. For example, many times, she would act like a natural airhead, and he himself was almost fooled. In reality, the other party was a completely terrifying woman.
"I should have said that we're in a hurry. Your spontaneous changes to our plan are very frustrating," Sure enough, as soon as the car drove away, Lu Qinglian dropped her act. She frowned. "You'd better have a reasonable explanation for why you came to my house. It can't be some boring reason."
"I don't have that many plans. I just wanted to take you somewhere to rest for a bit. It just occurred to me that those shoes of yours are not suitable for walking on that winding mountain road. You need to change them at the very least." Zhang Shutong was helpless. "You say I'm too suspicious, but I think you're about the same."
"Is that the only reason?"
"That's the only reason." He pointed to the stairs. "Do you need me to carry you?"
Lu Qinglian, however, was silent. She just shook her head and slowly walked up the stairs while holding on to the handrail.
"Thank you."
After a while, Lu Qinglian finally said softly.